Paddling with Your Core | 3 Basic Stand Up Paddling Strokes to Master

Hi, my name is Anna Levesque and I'm an American Canoe Association Stand Up Paddleboard Instructor Trainer and I've been running women's paddling camps and classes for over a decade. In this video, I want to talk about the importance of paddling with our core. When we first get on a board and we don't have any instruction, we tend to just paddle with our arms and when we paddle with just our arms, we end up moving more of the water than we do our board. This wastes energy and makes us feel like we're not strong enough. When we actually paddle with our cores, engaging our core, then we start to transfer our energy to the board and we start moving much more powerfully. The first thing we need to go over to learn how to engage our core is how to hold our paddles properly. What we want to do is put our top hand on our T-grip and have our other hand on the shaft. We put the paddle on top of our heads and we look to the hand that's on the T-grip and bend that elbow in a little less than 90 degrees and then look to the other hand and slide that hand up the shaft until that elbow is bent a little less than 90 degrees. Now we have what we call the paddler's box. The reason this paddler's box is so important is that our hands are wide enough on our paddles so that we can engage the core and transfer that energy from our core to our paddle and also down through our feet to the board. When our hands are too close together and we start paddling, it's really difficult to engage the core and we're more likely to paddle with our arms and therefore move more water and less of the board. So to illustrate how much more powerful we are when we engage our core when paddling, my friend Casey, who's really strong, is going to help us out. So Casey's going to hold my paddle blade. So if I'm trying to paddle with just my arms, I know she's strong, but it's really easy for her to stop the paddle blade. Now if I engage my core, it's a lot easier for me to take a strong stroke and she can't resist enough because I'm engaging the big muscles of my core. So let's go over how to engage the core in the three most basic strokes in stand-up paddleboarding. The first is the reverse sweep, and that's our most basic stopping stroke. So to really engage the core, we want to get down, bend our knees a little more, we want to rotate back towards the tail, plant our entire blade in the water, and then we're going to unwind from the core and even thinking about turning our feet towards our paddle and then release. So we wind up, plant, unwind, and release. So the next stroke is the forward sweep, and that's turning while in motion. And with the forward sweep, you want to get down a little more, and we want to rotate our bodies. This is what's going to give us that good core engagement. Plant our paddles all the way in the water, and then unwind, also thinking of turning our feet away from our paddle. So again, wind up, plant, and unwind. So the next stroke we're going to go over core engagement in is the forward stroke, and the forward stroke is what powers us forward. And so what we want with the forward stroke is that good neutral stance, and then we're going to keep our arms totally straight, because when we keep our arms totally straight, we have no choice but to move our core. When we start paddling with our arms bent, that's when we start moving more water and pulling with our arms. So when we keep our arms totally straight, we can engage the core better. So from there, we're going to wind up from our bottom side body, which means the side body attached to our bottom hand. We wind that up, and when we plant, we plant and push down with that top hand as we unwind the bottom side body. So again, we wind up, and then we plant, push down from the upper back and shoulder muscles of that top hand. So the last tip I want to give you on engaging the core in the forward stroke is as you're paddling, think about moving your feet forward. So as you wind up, plant, unwind with that little hinge, press your feet forward. So remember, to paddle powerfully, engage your core to move your board, not the water. For more women's specific videos on how to feel more powerful and confident on your board, tune in to Stand Up Paddling TV on YouTube.